Prokofiev Violin Sonatas Lisa Oshima

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Sonata for two violins, Op.56:
• 1 Prokofiev: Sonata for two violins, Op.56 02:51
• 2 Prokofiev: Sonata for two violins, Op.56 03:16
• 3 Prokofiev: Sonata for two violins, Op.56 03:49
• 4 Prokofiev: Sonata for two violins, Op.56 05:34
• Sonata No.2 in D major for violin and piano, Op 94a:
• 5 Prokofiev: Sonata No.2 in D major for violin and piano, Op 94a 07:59
• 6 Prokofiev: Sonata No.2 in D major for violin and piano OP.94a 05:04
• 7 Prokofiev: Sonata No.2 in D major for violin and piano Op.94a 03:43
• 8 Prokofiev: Sonata No.2 in D major for violin and piano Op.94a 07:35
• Sonata for violin solo op.115:
• 9 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo op.115 05:18
• 10 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo, Op.115 03:43
• 11 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo, Op.115 04:12
• Sonata for violin solo: (arr. for two violins):
• 12 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo: (arr. for two violins) 05:11
• 13 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo: (arr. for two violins) 03:35
• 14 Prokofiev: Sonata for violin solo: (arr. for two violins) 04:11
• Total Runtime 01:06:01

Info for Prokofiev Violin Sonatas

Multi-award winning Japanese violinist Lisa Oshima (member of Opera Nationale de Paris) brings together some of Prokofiev's best compositions for violin on this new release. Each piece on this record has been chosen by the artist for very personal reasons - not only to show Prokofiev's versatility, but also because of the powerful emotions he evokes. A fascination with Russian music and literature has inspired this album. Like Prokofiev, Lisa perceives herself as an outsider in Paris. As a Japanese woman abroad, with upheld samurai values, she has hidden her emotions. Here is their approach to making these hidden emotional energies explode in music.

Lisa Oshima was born in Tokyo, Japan and began studying the violin at the age of four. She graduated with a soloist diploma from the Toho Gakuen School of Music college where she studied with Kenji Kobayashi. She continued her studies with Dr. Felix Andrievsky as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music where she was awarded the Yehudi Menuhin Award, Ian Stoutzker Prize, and Isolde Menges Prize, and graduated with distinction in 2000. She has won numerous competitions including the 18th International Violin Competition ‘Premio Rodolfo Lipizer,” and the 20th Viotti International Music competition Valsesia. For her new release, she has brought together some of Prokofiev’s greatest compositions for violin. Each and every work on this recording has been chosen by the artist for very personal reasons- not only to show the multifaceted versatility of Prokofiev, but also because of the powerful emotions they summon. The artist writes of these selections, “These works by Prokofiev never fail to grab my heart. I hope you will enjoy…”

“This is a very special sonata.”

Sergei Prokofiev began work on his Violin Sonata in F minor in 1938, but wrote to fellow composer Nikolai Myaskovsky on 12 June 1943 that he was finding it “difficult” to make progress with the work, the sombre tone of which may reflect the political turmoil of the time. The sonata’s dedicatee, David Oistrakh, encouraged Prokofiev to finish the piece; Prokofiev had already arranged his Flute Sonata for Oistrakh, and the two met, along with pianist Lev Oborin, to hear the new Violin Sonata at Prokofiev’s home. The composer described each of the movements before playing them through, without hesitating between movements at the piano. According to Oistrakh, Prokofiev’s technique wavered on occasion, but the halting nature of his performance made it all the more poignant.

Oistrakh and Oborin gave the Violin Sonata’s premiere on 23 October 1946 at the Moscow Conservatory, with a follow-up concert on 25 October attended by Prokofiev. However, the composer was disappointed by their interpretation, lamenting afterwards that they had played the second and final movements, “like two old professors”. This prompted the composer to invite the pair round in November for a coaching session, and he made further amendments to the score to ensure every expressive nuance be heard.

The work’s reception was more fulsome, with the daunting figures of the Stalin Prize Committee calling the sonata, “the pride of Soviet music”, and composer Gavriil Popov hailing it as “truly brilliant”. In the Russian state newspaper Pravda, the sonata was interpreted as a “meditation on the fortunes of the Motherland”, and in 1947 the work won Prokofiev the First Class Stalin Prize. Prokofiev continued to tweak the score, which was published in 1951. In 1954 Oistrakh said of performing Prokofiev’s music:

“…nothing can be omitted, not a single turn of the melody, not a single modulation. It requires the strictest attention to every detail of expression, a fine, but not over-refined, execution of each individual intonation, as in the case of well-enunciated singing.”

Lisa Oshima, violin
Stefan Stroissnig, piano

Lisa Oshima
was born in Tokyo, Japan, and began studying the violin at the age of four.

She entered the Toho Gakuen Shool of College in 1991 to study with Kenji Kobayashi and graduated with a soloist diploma in 1995.She continued her studies with Dr.Felix Andrievsky as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music where she was awarded Yehudi Menuhin Award, Ian Stoutzker Prize and Isolde Menges Prize.She graduated from there with distinction (highest mark in the history of college).Then she completed her studies with Thomas Zehetmair at the Graz University of Art in Austria.

Lisa has won many competitions including the 18th International Violin Competition ,9th International Violin Competition,20th Viotti International Music Competition,40th All Japan Music Competition and Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe,String Scholarship Competition.

While studying Lisa was supported all her budget by bursaries from Japanese Government, Rohm Music Foundation,Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and The Sudbourough Foundation.

She has performed all over the world including UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Italy, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Australia etc…

Her London debut at the Purcell Room,Southbank for the Kirckman Society was acclaimed on the Strad magazine.She was invited for International Open Chamber Music Festival in Prussia Cove.Her concert at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival was broadcasted by NDR.

She has performed concertos with the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra,RCM Symphony Orchestra,Moldova Symphony Orchestra.

Lisa has performed as a leader in the Halle Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.After her contract with Staats Philharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz,she was appointed of l’Orchestra Opera National de Paris in 2003. She has appeared guest principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

This album contains no booklet.